Re: Comments on Item D1. Protected Bike Lanes Project

[Jim Baross]

It takes a village/peloton of cyclists pulling for us.

Thanks all!

Jim Baross

"Roads are for people, not just for people in cars."

CABO President

On Tue, May 27, 2025 at 8:25 AM Ron Medak <rme...@gmail.com> wrote:

Karl, thanks for authoring this excellent letter and your edits of the presentation Steve, I and others worked up!  Hopefully Vista's city leaders will take this into serious consideration and reverse the path they are on now!

Ron

On Tue, May 27, 2025 at 7:56 AM Martin Grover <mgro...@san.rr.com> wrote:

Congratulations on putting together a well thought out presentation. I’m not sure if the Traffic Engineer came up with the current design or relied on the City’s Traffic Commission. My guess is that whoever came up with the design wanted to provide the most protection to the most inexperienced cyclists: underage e-bike riders. I hope the City Council follows the Mayor’s lead and modify the current bike infrastructure improvements.

I will not be able to attend the meeting tonight because my wife and I have tickets to the Neil Diamond Musical. I hope the city council hearing goes well. 

Have a safe trip. 

Pete Grover

Sent from my iPad

On May 27, 2025, at 1:02 AM, Karl Rudnick <rudnick...@gmail.com> wrote:
All (trying to include folks from multiple threads on this subject on which I've been involved).

Below is my plea to not follow into the same situation we now have on Cardiff 101 South Beach with a similar wheel stop + bollard "protected" bike lane installation. I just used the meat of the excellent presentation by Ron Medak and Steve Linke with input from others (dropping images and video clip) to attempt to give Vista a true picture of real safety with this kind of design.

I hope I sent it to the right email.

Is anyone going to tomorrow's meeting? I'm off to Mpls for a whole month starting Wednesday and I can't afford to take the time.

Karl

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Karl Rudnick <rudnick...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, May 27, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Subject: Comments on Item D1. Protected Bike Lanes Project
To: <PublicC...@vista.gov>

Dear Vista Mayor, City Council and Staff

I would like to warn you of the proven safety hazards of the asphalt curbs which are currently being installed on Melrose. Your design for Class IV Separated Bikeways closely mirrors what the City of Encinitas (COE) installed on Hwy 101 Cardiff South Beach. At the September 25, 2019 Encinitas Council Meeting that design was approved despite strong opposition by experienced cyclists who make up the tens of thousands of bicycle trips per month on that corridor. In particular, the COE was warned that the installation of wheel stops (low curbs) and flex posts (bollards) posed hazards for safe movement within a confined space. Then Mayor of Solana Beach, David Zito, also noted that Solana Beach engineers felt the curbs posed a hazard to cyclists and urged COE to come up with an improved design to benefit both the less experienced for which the project was trying to attract and the tens of thousands of cyclists who used the corridor regularly for commuting, recreation, fitness. That is all in the public record and the purpose of my comments here is not to ask you to read all past opposition to that cycle track.

The Cardiff 101 South Beach cycle track installation is now five years old. This is a good time for a serious review of whether that installation improved safety and additionally showed a usage increase by cyclists of all levels. With all due respect to COE Engineer Abe Bandegan, he claims that there have been only 5 crashes since the installation. He has only used CA data in SWITRS and has not included all crashes in the time period from the start of adding the asphalt curbs, the first step in construction like Melrose. The attached document prepared by COE Mobility and Traffic Safety Commissioner Ron Medak MD and Steve Linke PhD shows the true story that safety has undeniably decreased in the past 5 years. Please read it and note the following points:

1. Medak and Linke use proven methodology to examine before and after official crash records over the same length of time before and after installation to show a 50% increase in crashes after installing the cycle track.
2. Medak and Linke used all available official crash records from the CCRS (Ca Crash Recording System) and the older, now discontinued SWITRS data, plus EMS records from the Encinitas Fire Dept. Note that some crashes appear in CCRS/SWITRS and not in EMS and vice-versa, so you need to examine both to make valid conclusions. Bandegan did not provide a solid before/after analysis, nor did he use any EMS data. Many of the crash victims were carried away by ambulance. The statewide databases do not regularly include solo cyclist crashes unless a motor vehicle is involved, especially if they are in a Class IV bikeway, which is not part of the roadway.
3. Medak and Linke also used a 101 section north of the Cardiff 101 cycle track of the same length and used the same periods of time before and after installation as a control segment, another methodology required in studies like this. This allows a way to determine if there were other confounding factors, such as a similar 50% increase in crashes along the control segment by other factors. The control segment shows basically no change before and after using the combined CCRS/SWITRS and EMS data, demonstrating that the observed 50% increase is significant. Bandegan provided no control data in his safety analysis.
4. Medak and Linke provided usage data along the coast, data which Bandegan never supplied before the 2020 installation and has not provided since to demonstrate the desired benefit to significantly boost mode share by cyclists over this corridor. Medak and Linke show an initial cycling spike for 2020, a phenomenon observed across the USA due to getting people outdoors to cope with the COVID pandemic. Since then, the usage has steadily dropped to 2016 levels, so the 50% increase in officially reported crashes is not due to a 50% increase in cycling, which is also demonstrated in the control segment.
5. Medak and Linke then added in "unofficial" data compiled by Serge Issakov of the San Diego Bicycle Club from real victims and eyewitnesses. After the large number of reports when the cycle track was installed, Issakov invited victims and eyewitness to report crashes which may or may not make it to CCRS/SWITRS or even EMS reports using Facebook. In the attached, this compilation is referenced as the "101 Crash List." These are real crashes, covering the entire spectrum of severity, that are discounted by COE as not real, unless they appeared in SWITRS.
6. From the 101 Crash List, there are more than 31 crashes of which 21 are neither in CCRS or EMS, including 4 in the first four months of 2025 - they continue. 19 crashes were a direct result of the cycle track, which include one fatality and six serious injuries.
7. Finally, COE uses a methodology to determine Equivalent Property Damage Only (EPDO).  Medak and Linke used COE-approved EPDO method for those 19 crashesTo show the cost to exceed $16 million. That does not include any injury damage related to the victims and their families, friends, and colleagues.
8. The conclusion is using both the officially recognized CCRS and EMS data with a 50% increase and the huge increase in crashes compiled in the 101 Crash List, one cannot argue that the Cardiff 101 South Beach corridor is safer, nor is there data to support the increase in bicycle mode share, a primary objective of the COE leadership.

You are bound to hear from inexperienced cyclists that they "feel much safer" in a Class IV cycle track like on Cardiff 101. There are Class IV designs that may in fact make people both "feel safe" and "actually be safe." Since Encinitas is now facing proven safety decrease for a wheel stop + bollard cycle track, it would behoove Vista to change the current design so that, five years from now, Vista will not be faced with similar data shown here.

Please rethink your design now, before it is too late. For the Melrose corridor, the current cyclists who ride through there would benefit by narrowing traffic lanes and using all available space for wider bike lanes and a buffer if possible. In Solana Beach Hwy 101 has 10 ft travel lanes and the Lomas Santa Fe Corridor Improvement plans calls for 10.5-11 ft travel lanes with no wheel stops or bollards.

For your bikeway projects please listen to all users, but don't forget that experienced cyclists can provide you with advice to help ensure that current cyclists do not suffer a decrease in utility and safety, while at the same time a proper design can get more people on bikes, an objective for all of us.

Respectfully submitted, 

Karl Rudnick PhD

North County Cycle Club Ride Leader

League of American Bicyclists Cycling Instructor #3481

BikeWalkSolana founding member, advising the City of Solana Beach

<101 Cardiff Cycle Track Safety Data.pdf>

[Pete van Nuys]

Jim,

I got Karl's excellent email, but not the attached document.

Can you please forward it to me? We are going into Irvine's Mobility Summit next week with strong opposition to Class 4s and can use all credible data we can get.
Thanks,
Pete

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